About

San Antonio College

San Antonio College (commonly called SAC; pronounced "sack") is a community college that is a part of the Alamo Community College District. It is located on San Pedro Avenue, across from San Pedro Park and the VIA Metropolitan Transit headquarters, all of which are in the Tobin Hill district of San Antonio, just north of Downtown San Antonio. SAC is the oldest public two-year college in Texas. The college has an average semester enrollment of 22,028 credit students and an average annual enrollment of 16,000 other-than-credit students. San Antonio College is the largest single-campus community college in Texas and one of the largest in the United States.

The college’s thirty-seven-acre campus includes the Scobee Education Center (planetarium and Challenger Learning Center), a student center with food court, fine arts center, business building, a visual arts and technology center, the Chance Academic building, a nursing center, the Nail Computer Technology building, the Candler Physical Education Center that includes two courts, a regulation indoor swimming pool, racquetball courts, a dance studio, and tennis courts; McCreless Hall, Gonzales Hall, the Koehler Cultural Center, the president's home, a chemistry-geology building, the Longwith Radio Television and Film building, a library, and the Campus Police.

San Antonio College provides academic, vocational and professional education that allow students to continue their education at a university or four-year college. SAC is a comprehensive community college that also provides offerings in occupational and technical courses and has assumed the San Antonio Independent School District's continuing education programs.

History

Koehler Cultural Center

In September 1925, SAC was first established as University Junior College under the administration of the University of Texas. However, the attorney general for the State of Texas ruled that the University of Texas was in violation of the state's constitution by operating a junior college. Therefore the college was passed to the San Antonio board of education and renamed San Antonio Junior College. In August 1946, San Antonio Junior College was renamed again after control of the school passed from the board of trustees. San Antonio College was adopted as the official name in 1948, and in 1951, SAC was moved to its present location on San Pedro Avenue. Accreditation was granted to the college in 1955 from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

San Antonio College is also approved and accredited by the Board of Nurse Examiners for the State of Texas, the Association of Texas Colleges and Universities, the Texas Educational Theater Association, the Texas Association of Music Schools, the National League for Nursing, the American Board of Funeral Service Education, the American Association of Community and Junior Colleges, the Southern Association of Junior Colleges, the Commission of Dental Accreditation of the American Dental Association, the Committee on Allied Health Education, and the Texas Public Community and Junior College Association.

Academics

Allied Health and Nursing Complex

San Antonio College serves the Bexar County community by providing high quality general education, liberal arts and sciences, career education, continuing education and developmental education. In December 2007, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) awarded San Antonio College a rating of "exemplary" for seven of its academic programs. However, in January 2008, the rating was revised to include additional programs bringing the total to eleven. The eleven programs receiving this designation are business management, Computer-aided design, dental assisting, Radio-TV and Film, Nursing education, finance and financial management, medical assisting, mortuary science, American Sign Language/Interpreter Training, public administration and real estate. This rating means that all eleven programs exceed the State of Texas' required standards of excellence in education.

According to Complete College America, San Antonio college currently has a 3% graduation rate when given 150% of the time needed to complete an associates degree. This places San Antonio college with the lowest percent of degrees awarded to its student body for all community colleges in the state of Texas.

Campus life

The SAC campus

The San Antonio College Recreation Sports department provides scheduled intramural and extramural activities. Extramural activities are organized team sports in which teams compete with ACCD schools and other organized collegiate teams from the South Central Texas region. Intramural activities are organized team sports in which teams compete with other teams organized within the college, and are also scheduled on campus.

Students attending San Antonio College can pursue a wide range of subjects and activities. As a community college, SAC allows students to pursue Associate Degrees and Certifications and take courses transferable to many institutions of higher education. San Antonio College offers 64 different Associates Degrees and 68 certificates. The college has over 300 2+2 articulation agreements with various colleges and universities. The 2+2 articulation agreement serves to facilitate the admission and academic transfer of students from participating Community Colleges like SAC to a participating 4 year college or university within the state of Texas. As students progress successfully toward the completion of the Associate degree, this agreement will ensure a seamless transition of the student's coursework and aids the student by increasing the number of transferable hours.

Student newspaper

San Antonio College also hosts The Ranger, an award winning student newspaper. The Ranger student newspaper is a laboratory project of the journalism classes in the Department of Journalism-Photography. The newspaper is published on Fridays except during the summer, holidays and examinations. The Ranger is also a member of the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association, the Associated Collegiate Press, the Texas Community College Journalism Association and the Associated Press. The publication was selected as a National Pacemaker Award winner by the Associated College Press for 2004 and a Pacemaker Finalist for 2005.

The Ranger has recently made its articles available to students online (http://www.theranger.org/). Students now have the option of accessing The Ranger in either print or online media formats.

Mascot

San Antonio College's mascot is the Ranger. The origins of the mascot are derived from the Texas Ranger Division. However, due to controversy surrounding the use of the Ranger as a mascot, students were given the opportunity to present ideas and drawings for a new mascot. According to an article written in the Ranger, history Professor Nora E. McMillan stated that the controversy is whether during the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the Texas Rangers were an elite group of law enforcement agents or vigilantes.

In a follow on article the possible alternatives to the Ranger included wolves, salamanders, black panthers, lions, bears, knights and raiders. However, President Robert Zeigler and student representatives want to get the student vote in terms of recommendations. Zeigler said he hopes to finish the decision on the mascot in the 2007-08 school year. The college needs to figure out a way to choose a mascot that augments the ranger but does not replace it, President Zeigler told members of the Student Government Association.

Zeigler suggested to members that the campus bring an animal mascot and integrate the animal and the Ranger, creating a softer image for the Ranger. Nonetheless, no decision has been currently forthcoming regarding the status of the school's mascot. The decision on a new mascot will gather input by the student government, administrators, faculty, chairs and students, however President Zeigler has ultimately claimed the right to change the college's mascot in the event a decision is made.

The school pride colors are red, black, and royal blue School colors were previously orange and white (1925 – late 1980s), orange, blue and white (late 1980s – mid 1990s), and red and black (mid-1990s – ?)

Notable alumni

Albert Bustamante, U.S. Representative (1985–1993)

Henry B. Gonzalez, U.S. Representative (1961–1999)

Cyndi Taylor Krier, Texas State Senator (1985–1993)

William A. Moody, stage name Paul Bearer, professional wrestling personality

Michael Nesmith, guitarist for The Monkees

Ciro D. Rodriguez, U.S. Representative (1997–2005 & 2007–2011)

Francis R. Scobee, commander of the Space Shuttle Challenger

Herbert Spiro, political scientist, United States Ambassador to Cameroon (1975–1977)

Notable faculty

Kevin Patrick Yeary, judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals; adjunct instructor at San Antonio College, 2000 to 2008